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plead any precedent to excuse you; and therefore, I hope you will commit no more such errors: and in the meantime, I heartily congratulate with your grace that I can rally you upon this accident.

I am in some fear that our peace will hardly be concluded in several weeks, by reason of a certain incident that could not be foreseen; neither can I tell whether the parliament will sit before the conclusion of the peace; because some persons differ in their politics about the matter. If others were no wiser than I, your session should not be deferred upon that account.

I am, with the greatest respect,
Your grace's most dutiful and humble servant,

JON. SWIFT

FROM LORD BOLINGBROKE.

Thursday Morning, Two o'Clock, Jan. 5, 1712-13. THOUGH I have not seen, yet I did not fail

to write to lord-treasurer.

Non tua res agitur, dear Jonathan. It is the treasurer's cause;

*it is

* About this time it would seem Swift was soliciting some preferment; and also that he thought the lord-treasurer negligent of his interest. On the 26th December, he informs Stella, he dined with the lord-treasurer, who chid him for being absent three days-Mighty kind with a p-! less of civility and more of interest." Bolingbroke always insisted that Oxford was backward in assisting Swift's promotion. Probably the treasurer was unwilling to own how little the queen's prejudice against our author left it in his power to serve him. Swift, however, began

my cause; it is every man's cause, who is embarked on our bottom. Depend upon it, that I never will neglect any opportunity of showing that true esteem, that sincere affection, and honest friendship for which fill the breast of your faithful friend,

you!

BOLINGBROKE.

TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.*

MY LORD,

January 20, 1712-13,

I WOULD myself have delivered the answer I sent yesterday to your grace at court by Dr Arbuth

to turn impatient of the state of dependence in which he was kept, and mortified by repeated disappointments. See Vol. III. p. 205.

*That the Duke of Argyll and Swift were once upon an excellent footing, appears from various passages in Swift's Journal. The breach between them was brought to a climax, by Swift's pamphlet, entitled the "Public Spirit of the Whigs," in which the Scotish nation were treated in such derogatory terms, that the whole Scotish peers went in a body to court, with the Duke of Argyll at their head, to demand the exemplary punishment of the author; and a reward of L. 300 was offered by the queen to any person who would make him known. But the difference alluded to in this letter is of a prior date. The Duke of Argyll had already quarrelled with ministers, and even supported a bill which was brought into parliament for dissolving the union, un. der pretence it had been infringed by the English. The cause, therefore, of the Duke of Argyll's dissatisfaction with Swift, a warm supporter of administration, and no friend to Scotland, is very obvious; nor does it appear that they were ever after. wards reconciled. In his remarks on the characters drawn by Mackay or Davies, Swift stigmatizes the duke as an "ambitious, covetous, cunning Scot, who has no principle but his own interest and greatness. A true Scot in his whole conduct." Vol. X. p. 317.

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not, if I had not thought the right of complaining to be on my side: for, I think it was my due, that you should have immediately told me whatever you had heard amiss of my conduct to your grace. When I had the honour to be first known to those in the ministry, I made it an express condition, "that whoever did me ill offices, they should inform me of what was said, and hear my vindication; that I might not be mortified with countenances estranged of the sudden, and be at a loss for the cause. And I think, there is no person alive, whose favour or protection I would purchase at that expense. I could not speak to the disad vantage of your grace without being ungrateful (which is an ill word) since you were pleased voluntarily to make so many professions of favour to me for some years past; and your being a duke and a general would have swayed me not at all in my respect for your person, if I had not thought you to abound in qualities, which I wish were easier to to be found in those of your rank. I have, indeed, sometimes heard what your grace was told I reported; but as I am a stranger to coffeehouses, so it is a great deal below me to spread coffeehouse reports. This accusation is a little the harder upon me, because I have always appeared fond of your grace's character; and have, with great industry, related several of your generous actions, on purpose to remove the imputation of the only real fault* (for I say nothing of common frailties) which I ever heard laid to your charge. I confess, I have often thought that Homer's description of Achilles bore

Probably his impetuous ambition, as would appear from comparing him to Achilles.

some resemblance to your grace, but I do not remember that ever I said so. At the same time, I think few men were ever born with nobler qualities to fill and adorn every office of a subject, a friend and a protector, &c.

FROM ROBERT HUNTER, ESQ.*

New-York, March 1, 1712-13.

I THINK I am indebted to you for two letters, and should have continued so, had it not been for the apprehension of your putting a wrong construction upon my neglect. My friends being few in number, I would not willingly, or by my own fault, neglect nor lose those I have. The true cause is this. My unhappy circumstances have so soured me, that whatever I write must be vinegar and gall to a man of your mirth. For the better understanding of which, be pleased to read them in the words of one of my most renowned predecessors. † Quando pensè venir a este govierno a comer caliente, y a

* Brigadier Hunter, governor of New-York and New-Jersey, who was afterwards appointed governor and captain-general of Jamaica, in the room of the Duke of Portland, who died there, July 4, 1726.-H. See a letter to this gentleman, in the preceding volume.

+ The sapient Sancho Panza. "When I thought, as being a governor, to have a bellyful of good hot victuals and cool liquor, and to refresh my body in Holland sheets, and on a soft feather. bed, I am come to do penance like a hermit; and, as I do it unwillingly, I am afraid the devil will have me notwithstanding." Motteux's translation.

bever frio, y a recrear il cuerpo entre sabanas de Olanda, sobre colchones de pluma, he venido a hazer penitencia, como se fuera Ermetanno, y como no la hago de me volontad, penso que al cabo al cabo, me ha de uevar el diablo. This worthy was indeed but a type of me, of which I could fully convince you by an exact parallel between our administrations and circumsances, which I shall reserve to another opportunity.

The truth of the matter is this: I am used like a dog after having done all that is in the power of man to deserve a better treatment, so that I am now quite jaded. Malè vehi malo alio gubernante, quàm tam malis rectoribus bene gubernare.

The approaching peace will give leisure to the ministry to think of proper remedies for the distracted state of all the provinces; but of this more particularly, the importance of it by its situation being greater, and the danger by their conduct more imminent than that of the rest. I have done my duty in representing their proceedings, and warning them of the consequences; and there I leave it. Neque tam me eveλioτia consolatur ut antea quam asiagopia, quâ nullâ in re tam utor quam in hâc civili et publica. I have purchased a seat for a bishop, and by orders from the society have given direction to prepare it for his reception. You once upon a day gave me hopes of seeing you there. It would be to me no small relief to have so good a friend to complain to. What it would be to you to hear me when you could not help me, I know not. Cætera desunt -for the post cannot stay. Adieu.

I am, very sincerely, your's,
R. HUNTER.

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